1. advice
56 Family Holiday & Leisure Autumn 2014 www.familyholidayandleisure.com
flyingwith childrenThe thought of flying with children can be either a fun or a
daunting prospect, generally determined by the age of the
offspring concerned. To help with your next trip, we asked
some experienced parents to share tips about flying with
children of all ages. By Alison Budge

2. advice
5958 Family Holiday & Leisure Autumn 2014 Family Holiday & Leisure Autumn 2014www.familyholidayandleisure.com www.familyholidayandleisure.com
advice
The holiday is planned, the
excitement has been building for
weeks, and finally the big day is
here.You head off to the airport, cars packed
to the hilt with luggage for the whole family,
car seats, excited and squirmy kids, and
granny too for last-minute goodbye kisses.
And then the flight begins …
Flying with children can be either fun or
completely daunting, generally determined
by the age of your children. The fun part
comes from experiencing airports, airplanes
and the associated processes through the
eyes of a youngster, where everything is
simply thrilling. As adults we often bemoan
how tiring and mundane the flights can be,
and that they are simply a means to the
destination. For children they are often the
most exciting part!
Flying with teenagers
I travelled with two teenagers to England
over the Christmas holidays, and while they
are locally well travelled by road, long-haul
flights are special and incredibly exciting for
them. We always aim to make our children
travel savvy, so we let them lead the way
and work out our path through the airport.
For this they need to read and look for
details. We encouraged them to find the
flight number on the ticket, use the
self-service check-in machines, find where
we needed to pass through security checks,
and find our boarding gate. Although these
are small things, what is important for us is
that our two see how simple travelling is;
it is simply a question of knowing where
to access the information they need. We
wanted them to experience first-hand
how easy it is to find that information.
Once on board they of course figured
out how to use the TV and earphones while
my husband and I were still buckling up. A
winner for them was that they had brought
their own earphones – much better quality
that those supplied on the plane – and
were engrossed all night and all flight in the
movies and series on offer. (British Airways
offer a parental lock which lets you block
programmes you don’t want your children
to see.) We anticipated this continuous TV
watching, so reduced their carry-on
luggage to a few toiletries, a change of
underwear in case of flight delays, and
something to read.
There were small aspects of the flight
that we adults simply took for granted that
our kids would know, like being allowed to
remove shoes and socks at night (maybe
that was a blessing with a teenage son
around). We didn’t realise that we needed
to ask specifically for eye masks: this may
have encouraged more sleep, as the light
and activity throughout the night did
distract my two from getting much sleep.
Corrina Everitt adds that when travelling
with her teens she makes sure that they have
a good book, a challenging game like Story
Cubes (which is tiny and only requires
imagination), and that the handheld gaming
consoles are charged up enough to get
them through the waiting around at airports.
She has made sure that her children
understand that flying involves waiting and
delays, but nonetheless they all love the
journey and excitement of heading off.
“One of the greatest gifts we can pass
onto our children is the love of travel,”says
Corrina.“Flying with children is not always
fun – but if you approach it positively and
remember where you’re headed to or why
you’re doing it, then it’s all worth it.”
Flying with young children
Sarah Dalrymple seems quite the pro at this.
She and engineer husband Mike have
relocated countries for work quite regularly,
and have three children who always
travel with them.“Having travelled both
internationally and locally with all of my
children from a very young age I think I
may have a few half-decent tips for any
travelling family! My eldest started her
long-haul travels at 12 months old, my
middle child did three international trips
before he was 6 months old, and at the
same age my third child did a 3-day
marathon trip from Trinidad and Tobago
to New York, to London, and then to South
Africa. And we are still travelling!”
Sarah sticks to the following basic steps:
• Make sure you all shower and dress in
clean clothes before you leave home.
• Pack a facecloth, toothbrushes, toothpaste
and Vicks - a little bit under their noses
ensures no airborne illnesses will spoil
their holiday.
• Always pack a little backpack for each
child which they can carry, containing
pencils, a new magazine, journal or
workbook, a water bottle (keep filled
at all times), a change of clothing and
a book.
• Make sure you have a lunch box in each
backpack with titbits like a fruit roll, a
sandwich, box of cereal, crisps, apple,
lollipop, something chewy, dried fruit,
etc. And make sure you have fluids – a
dehydrated and hungry child is awful!
• Have a meal before you travel. A meal
at the airport before flying means your
child will not be hungry until the
aeroplane meal finally arrives. If they are
fed and have something to drink, they
can snuggle up and start sleeping as soon
as you take off. If they are still awake for
their meal, that is a bonus for them!
Always order a child’s meal when booking
your tickets and seat allocations. This will
ensure that their meal arrives before
everyone else’s.
• Before they go to sleep make sure they
have washed their faces and had their
teeth brushed – they really do sleep better.
• Relax – it is a family holiday, and you
should all be having fun!

3. advice
60 Family Holiday Leisure Autumn 2014 www.familyholidayandleisure.com
What the airlines offer
We suggest looking at the web pages of
the airline you will be using before your
trip. Read about what is offered to
families, and make use of their services.
Some services require pre-booking and
others don’t. For example, Emirates offer
priority boarding for families travelling
with young children, and on British
Airways when you travel with an infant
under 2 years who won’t be travelling in
a seat of their own, you can reserve a
seat for yourself and everyone in your
party (free of charge) as soon as you’ve
made your booking.
Most airlines offer a limited number
of bassinets, so make sure you book your
holiday early and specify if you need a
bassinet for your tiny person (there is
normally a weight limitation of about
11-12 kg). Some airlines also offer an
adapted baby seat, which you ask the
crew for once on board, making their
flight (and yours) a little more
comfortable. Activity packs offered by
the airlines bring much excitement, help
keep children entertained, and are great
mementos for them once home again.
Call Centre: +264 61 299 6111 or contact your local Travel Agent
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We get you there
Ac
Velia and Mike Duncan also used many
of these tips when they travelled from Cape
Town to Johannesburg recently with their
4-year-old daughter to visit family for the
weekend.“We started talking about the
trip way in advance to set expectations and
also to up the excitement levels,”said Velia.
“We flew at night, so we started the journey
with supper at the airport, including a
chocolate milkshake as a treat to set the
mood. We also made sure that Grace had
her own carry-on luggage (just like mom
and dad) that she could pull along. The
whole time we explained that all of the
things that we were doing and seeing
were just like what happens when either of
us travels to Joburg for business, to give her
an idea of what happens when we’re away.
“Once on board, Grace’s curiosity and love
for rules also helped to fill the time: buckling
up, checking the tray tables, opening and
closing the window blind, browsing the
safety instructions, and making up
explanations for every bump and tilt of the
plane. Once in the air we had great fun
seeing how small the cars, mountains and
rivers were, watching the sun set, and
getting down to a session with an activity
book before prepping for landing.”
Supermum Di Stonefield faced flying
solo with three young boys on a long-haul
international flight.“It was not easy, but we
did it.The flight crew tried to help as much as
possible whenever I needed them, and loads
of passengers who saw me alone with three
kids offered me help.This was so heartfelt,
and really appreciated when I needed to use
the rest room, for getting on and off the
plane, and in the airport terminals.”
The food on the trip seemed to pose a
few challenges for Di.“What was awful was
landing in London and not being able to
find whole milk for the kids to drink. They
don’t like skim milk. On board all of the
kiddies’meals were great. The spaghetti and
meatballs made a mess, but the kids loved
it. They were a bit heavy on the sweets - a
tad too much sugar, what with Jelly Tots, Kit
Kats and then chocolate cake for dessert.”
Fortunately for Di, on landing in London
they found some play areas at the airport,
which were great for the boys to get rid of
some of their pent-up energy.“After
sleeping and being confined to sitting in a
chair for 11 hours, they were ready to play.
It was exhausting for me though; I just
wanted to close my eyes and drop to
the floor.”
That was only the first leg of their trip:
they still had a second flight to Los Angeles.
“We chose two night flights as the boys
would want to sleep at that time, and it
was so great that each seat came with its
own little TV screen. My boys spent time
watching various programmes over and
over when they were not sleeping.
“I did not medicate my three boys at all,
so I guess I got lucky this trip while we were
flying. They were all very well behaved. I
packed snacks, toys, cards and treats in case
they started to get fussy, and carried extra
clothing for each. (Fortunately, as two of
them vomited and one wet himself.)
Another thing I noticed at the airports was
that they had little or no baby stuff for sale.
What about extra nappies, formula and wet
wipes? Airports should sell those essentials
for parents to buy. I carried around what felt
like boatloads of wipes for the kids, for all of
the dirt and sticky stuff they got into!”
Di sums up her experiences well when
she says:“Since my epic journey from Cape
Town to Los Angeles in California and home
again, I know I can do anything!”
Flying with infants
Cath and Andy Duncan flew with their
Zola for the first time when he was the
tender age of 4 months.“We were lucky I
guess, in that Zola didn’t really challenge us.
Although, even if you have a generally calm
and contented baby, you never know how
the trip to the airport and the flight will go!”
says Cath. “As we needed to take a diaper
bag as hand luggage, we kept our other
hand luggage as small as possible to ensure
that we had our hands free for carrying and
tending to Zola.”
Together she and Andy decided to leave
their bassinet and car seat at home and
rather to hold their little guy on their laps.
“This made it easy for us to adjust his
position depending on whether he wanted
to sleep, sit, drink his bottle, or play during
the flight.” Tips to other parents travelling
with infants:“Remember to take plastic
bags with you so you can easily dispose of
dirty nappies, and be extra friendly to the
people around you, and to the crew – you
never know when you may need their
understanding or their help!”
From past experience Corrina suggests
asking the air steward to warm the milk for
your baby almost as soon as you get onto
the flight, so that he/she has something to
swallow and suck on during take-off. This is
when babies’ears are most affected by the
air pressure, causing them to cry because
their ears hurt. Having a dummy or their
bottle eases this, and keeps everyone
settled. Do the same for landing.
She adds that it is important to always
take a spare change of clothes for both your
child and yourself when you fly.“Amy
throwing up all over me on a flight 2 hours
out from our destination taught me that
one. The funny part was seeing the faces of
our fellow passengers as all three of us went
to the loo so that I could change into my
husband’s t-shirt. I’m not sure what they
thought we were up to with a baby in tow,
but the looks were priceless!”